The Other Side of Life
by Nuclotei
Summary: At 16 years old Chihiro has lost everything. Everything but her memories that is. To find her way back to the other world, back to him, she'll do anything, and learn that even the best of memories don't last forever. C/H
1. Prologue

A/N: So I've been on a rather large writing kick lately and figured that while I can write, I'll write as much as I can! I was actually watching Howl's Moving Castle today when I thought of an idea for Spirited Away, go figure. So here we are, it's short but it's just a prologue, if people are interested I'll write more!

**This is set after the events of the movie take place.**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Spirited Away, I just screw them up for entertainment purposes.

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The Other Side of Life

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Prologue

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She stood on the bank of the river, watching the churning waters full of mud and debris. The rain poured down on her head, plastering her brunette hair to her forehead, to her face as thunder crackled around her and lightening lit up the dark clouds above.

She leaned closer, reaching down to touch the water like she had so many times before, but her reflection didn't stare back at her this time, instead she saw a creature rise up out of the water, face illuminated briefly by another flash of lightning. A scream caught in her throat as thunder boomed around her and she closed her eyes tightly, covering her ears with her hands.

Taking a few deep calming breaths, she didn't have to look again to realize it was just a contorted limb from a tree and she shook the fear out of herself as she forced her eyes back open.

Tears were washed away with the rain, a sob threatened to bubble up and she twisted her hands in her shirt, a sparkling purple hair band around her wrist.

She didn't have time to be afraid, she didn't have time to cry, and she didn't have time to wait.

They were coming for her.

"Chihiro! Chihiro Kawa!" The voices called to her, flashlights flickering past, around her, looking through the pouring rain, looking for her.

She looked back towards the lights, her heart, already beating hard, starting to pound in her chest.

She couldn't back down, she just had to close her eyes and do it.

"Chihiro!" She heard their footsteps now, heard the crackling of their radios as they relayed to base that she had been found, that the run away girl was about to be caught.

Taking a deep breath she turned her eyes back to the violent, dirty water.

"No matter what, I have to go back there." She whispered fiercely as she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and jumped into the river.

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A/N: Very short, but once again, a prologue! I have this whole thing planned out, so let me know if you like it or are interested in seeing what's going on and I'll be happy to post more!

…Nuclotei


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Here is chapter 1! I got more reviews than I had expected, thank you for all of your support and I hope you continue to find interest in this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Spirited Away, I just screw them up for entertainment purposes.

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Chapter One

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Her lungs burned for air.

She kicked as hard as she could, trying to surface, waved her arms above her head as she was dragged down the river, searching for anything to grab onto.

Fear had gripped her, survival instinct had kicked in and suddenly, drowning herself didn't seem like that great of an idea.

Her fingers closed around a branch, and she opened her eyes. The sharp sting of the muddy water mixed with the quick flash of lightning was enough to make her close them again quickly.

She never saw the rocks she was rushing to meet, and she didn't know what hit her as her head cracked painfully against them, knocking her out cold as the water carried her down the river.

…

**One Week Earlier**

…

"Chihiro!" She stared out of the classroom window, her chin in her hand as she thought about a place, a place filled with strange creatures. Full of lights at night, and of magic users and spirits.

"Chihiro?" Turning as a finger poked her shoulder she blinked rapidly, startled.

"Sorry, Asai, did you say something?" The girl poking her puffed up her cheeks, tugged on Chihiro's ponytail then huffed.

"I have only been calling your name. Lunch started already and I was going to the store to get something. Want anything?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged a shoulder. "Strawberry milk?" Her friend wrinkled her noise.

"Again? Fine, I'll be back in a bit."

"Don't get swallowed by the crowd!" Chihiro called after her then looked back out of the window.

The courtyard was beautiful this time of year, the spring flowers blooming, vibrant colors everywhere. It was also the time of year when she thought about that place the most, so much so that sometimes she felt as if she were being pulled into her daydreams; not that she minded.

The school was large, and you only had to have average grades to get in, which suited her just fine. Her parents had been upset about the entrance exams, how she only managed to get into such a mediocre place…

She let out a soft sigh, her warm brown eyes closed.

…as a matter of fact, her parents were upset at her a lot.

Ever since that day they came back through that darkened windy tunnel. They had tried everything to get her to stop talking about her fantasy world she had "made up".

It didn't take her terribly long to figure out the more she kept quiet about it, the happier her parents seemed to be. It even so happened that for an entire year she had been convinced that what she had experience was a delusion, brought on by the sudden change in her life. Then one day while cleaning under her bed she had found her most treasured item.

She reached up automatically to touch the purple beaded hair tie in her hair and smiled. It reminded her of friends, of that place, and of him.

When she had realized that she wasn't delusional, that everything she remembered actually happened, she kept quiet. Her parents grew more upset the more introverted she turned, they demanded she explain, they demanded that she act more like herself, they even threatened to send her away to a private school but she just smiled in the reassuring way she had learned from her mother and told them everything was okay.

Chihiro sighed again then jerked back from her desk as a box plopped down in front of her, scaring her from her thoughts.

"Ack!" She rubbed her hand over her heart, looked at the box and tilted her head before crossing her eyes to look at the strawberry milk held in front of her face.

"Did you think I'd forget?" Chihiro leaned to look at the raven haired girl with the pretty blue eyes.

"Um…?"

"Happy Birthday!" Asai leaned and flipped open the box, a single piece of chocolate cake with an unlit candle sticking out of it sat neatly inside.

"Oh!" Chihiro felt herself blush, Asai hadn't forgotten but she forgot her own birthday?

Asai leaned and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl, snuggling her cheek to hers.

"Sixteen years old, you're finally a woman." She sighed then laughed as Chihiro pinched her side.

"Let's eat!"

…

She started at the officer standing in the doorway to the house, her fingers clamped tightly on the door as he watched her with calculating, somber eyes. Her face was a white as her knuckles as he repeated her name, the sound of his voice barely getting through the loud buzzing sound in her ears.

"Chihiro."

She parted her lips to speak, but nothing came out.

"Chihiro, did you hear what I said?" Her vision blurred as he reached out to grab her arm. The world swayed, then went black.

…

"_Dead, your parents are dead. They were at the store, walking across the parking lot, they were struck by a car, the man who hit them was drunk. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry for your loss. You'll have to come with me now, you have no other relatives, right?"_

She stared out of the window, at the grass two stories below. She sat on a bunk, wearing the same black pants and sweater she had worn to the funeral. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, her knees pulled to her chest and she struggled to put a single thought together in her head.

Child Protective Services had taken her without any fuss, without any dramatics. She felt like she was having an out of body experience, felt like she was a piece on a game board, being shuffled to and fro, being placed just right.

She had been allowed into her room, to grab clothes, clothes for the funeral, then she watched as the social worker dug through her drawers, picked out things that were 'suitable' for her to wear at the group home.

A group of teenagers walked past her bed, chatting and shoving each other playfully, but she didn't notice.

Yesterday had been her birthday, she had been with Asai a bit after school then went home. Her parents were waiting for her, huge smiles on their faces, with a big cake that she couldn't possibly have eaten. They gave her an I-pod, and a gift card so she could pick out new songs, they also sat down for the first time as a real family that she could remember, had a meal, joked and talked, her father had even sung to her.

"_Happy Birthday, my precious daughter."_

She could still hear his voice, his laugh, see her mothers smile like it had just been moment before.

The feel of a warm tear rolling down her cheek startled her, another followed it, then more followed those.

She shifted, laid down on the uncomfortable bed and sobbed.

…

She ran for what felt like an eternity, days had passed and she finally found a way out of that awful place, away from those awful girls. They had tormented her since the first night she had arrived, taking what little things she had, trying to provoke her into a fight.

She sobbed as she ran through the trees, up the cobblestone path.

For punishment the woman in charge of the house had taken away her most prized possession with the help of the girls who had watched her guard her hair tie like her life depended on it.

"I hate you!" She screamed into the night as she ran. "Why did you leave me?"

With another sob she felt her legs give way, reached out her arms to catch herself and found them wrapping around a short statue, covered in moss. Her knees stung as they hit the cobblestone and she sobbed harder, holding onto the statue.

"Why did this happen? What did my family do so wrong?" She bowed her head, brown hair falling into her face and struggled to catch her breath. "Momma, Papa. Help me…I'm so lost without you, I don't know what to do."

Silence answered her, then the wind shifted through the trees, blowing around her gently and she lifted her head as she heard her name.

"Chihiro!"

Looking around slowly her heart pounded in her chest as she stood on shaking legs.

"Momma?"

"Chihiro!" There were lights now, footsteps and she ran towards them.

"I'm here!"

The screeching sound of a radio, the sound of strange men talking had her sliding to a stop as the social worker ran around the bend, flanked by two officers.

"We found her." She heard one of the men say into his radio. "By the old amusement park entrance, near where she used to live."

"Amusement…"She whispered then turned quickly, the old building standing tall behind her. She had made it. Looking towards the ground she saw the two sided statue, felt her heart burst with joy then she was running as fast as she possibly could towards the entrance.

"Chihiro, stop! That's dangerous!" The woman called after her, but she didn't stop, even though she couldn't breathe, even though her knees stung terribly.

She wasn't going to stop until she made it through the tunnel, into the grassy plain, and across the stones of the river. She wasn't going to stop until she could feel his arms wrapped around her, watch his magic drive those people away, protect her from everything.

The sounds of footsteps behind her echoed as she ran into the tunnel.

It was pitch black, she was running blind, but she didn't care.

"Chihiro, I said stop!" The woman yelled after her.

She closed her eyes as she ran, whispering encouragements to herself then the floor dropped away from her feet and she fell into water with a scream.

"She fell in!"

"Get backup, something to pull her up with!"

She squinted up above her, as the flash lights shown around her, the freezing cold water shallow enough to stand in and she looked around, tears spilling down her cheeks. The building was collapsed around her, the floor cracked and broken, a bench half sticking up out of the water.

The tunnel was crushed.

She could never go back.

…

_A flight risk. _

_A danger to herself._

_A danger to others._

She heard the voices around her, the voices of sneering girls, of the head of the household, of the social worker she couldn't remember the name of.

She carried her bag to the door, she hadn't eaten all day, she hadn't spoken, hadn't looked directly at anyone.

Why did it turn out like this?

The thought was fleeting, and as she stepped out into the rain she glanced down at her hand as one of the younger girls slipped something into it.

Purple beads winked at her in the dreary light and she felt her insides crumble.

"We'll have to find a way around, they say the new Kohaku river is out of control, flooding with all of this rain. It's already wiped out a section of housing, and two bridges. I don't know why they decided to re-dig it, it just ended up being a polluted mess, run off for the new construction site, and now this. It's just one big damn mess." Chihiro glanced up at the driver who was talking as she slid into the back of the car, the social worker on one side of her, a police officer sliding on the other side.

'Where are you taking me?' She had wanted to ask, but didn't, she already knew and suddenly she felt a glimmer of hope. They were taking her to the juvenile detention center near her old home, before they had moved for her father's job.

She leaned her head back against the seat as she closed her eyes, tears threatening to spill over.

She'd be going home, and the Kohaku river was the best place to go for what her heart had settled on next.

'Haku.' She thought. 'Wait for me, I'll get there one way or another.'.

…

The water rushed out of her lungs as she coughed hard, curling up on the hard surface she was laying on. Water lapped at her legs as the rain poured down on her. She opened her eyes, unfocused and blurry and coughed again, forcing her arms under her to push herself up. The hair tie still in her hand dug into her palm as her arms shook.

Everything hurt.

"I didn't…" She trailed off and closed her eyes tightly.

Of all things in the world to get wrong, she survived drowning in a river while being knocked out.

Tears threatened to fall again and she forced them back, her head was already hurting enough.

Opening her eyes slowly she looked down at her hands, looked through them to the stone of the stairs below her and gasped.

"I'm fading…" She sat up on her knees quickly, her pupils shrinking as she gazed over the lit town of the spirit world.

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A/N: Tell me what you think so far! Much longer than the prologue! Hope nothing was confusing!

…Nuclotei


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